Water Conservation Becomes More Important As Shortages Continue in California

As water supplies dwindle in California, legislators and other organizations are scrambling to come up with solutions to make sure supplies are available for the future.

California has been using an extraction strategy for the past few decades to supply water to cities and agricultural areas. This has included damming rivers, building larger reservoirs and tapping aquifers. Conservation strategies have been largely overlooked and for the most part water extraction infrastructure has been given priority over environmental concerns.

Going forward, California is going to need to balance long term environmental concerns with quickly creating new water supplies to meet growing demand. Water Conservation could play a larger role as it would reduce water shortages without the high costs and environmental impacts of new infrastructure.

According to the Pacific Institute, Agricultural water conservation, which includes reducing the use of flood plains, drip irrigation and improved crop watering schedules to account to for weather and growth cycles, has the ability to cut consumption by 1.8 trillion gallons annually.That is 15 times the annual water consumption of the city of San Francisco.

On top of agricultural water savings, it is estimated that using existing residential water conservation technologies, Californians can reduce their water use by one third at a cost lower than tapping into new sources.

Hopefully, as California state legislators debate a water bill to address the crisis, they will come up with a plan that includes strong conservation measures.

Photo Credit: WATE NO WATER via Flickr